[GOAL] comments on the doaj criteria

[Ulrich Herb]

Dear Dominic,



thanks a lot for giving the community the chance to comment the new doaj 
criteria. To my mind these two points should be revised:
- Journal has an editorial board with clearly identifiable members 
(including affiliation information)
- Journal publishes a minimum of five articles per year (does not apply 
for new journals)

As a person that is involved in journal publishing, I am strongly 
convinced that editorial boards are not at all (or per se) an indicator 
for quality, soundness or trustworthiness. Memberships in these boards 
are in most cases just a sort of decoration. It would be wrong to force 
journals to establish such a board in order to be listed in the doaj. To 
establish such a board should be an intrinsic decision that is based on 
the consideration that this board will improve the journal in whatever 
regard ever.

I also think it would very undesirable to exclude journals with high 
quality content just because they ceased (or paused) to publish new papers.

Best regards

Ulrich Herb

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